1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid oxide fuel cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fuel cells are attracting much attention as environment-friendly energy, and it is thus expected that fuel cells will be put to practical use for various fields such as a fuel cell vehicle, a home cogeneration system, and a small-sized power supply for a mobile phone. While there are various types of fuel cells, a sold oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is advantageous in that its energy efficiency is high and the SOFC may be manufactured at low cost because noble metals are not used. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-253090 discloses an SOFC in which air and fuel are supplied from an upper part of a housing section surrounding and housing the SOFC.
However, as illustrated in FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-253090, when fuel and air are separately supplied to an anode and a cathode of each cell from the same direction in plural solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) contained in a housing section, a fuel supplying apparatus and an air supplying apparatus are required. Since the SOFC has a structure where a solid electrolyte is inserted between the anode and the cathode, supplying systems of fuel and air become complicated for separately supplying the fuel and air to each of the neighbored anode and cathode, which makes it difficult to realize miniaturization. As illustrated in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-253090, when a gas mixture of fuel and air is supplied from the same direction to each cell of the plural SOFCs contained in the receiving section, generation efficiency is deteriorated.